Using Buildtracks not only makes it easy for you to stay up-to-date with your business' sales and revenue but it also saves you money and the time that your end-up spending otherwise.
Buildtracks is on a mission to create a small business that helps other small businesses that want to grow. It was launched in 2012 and is co-run by Gregor McKelvie (the programmer and the left brain of Tracks) and Ruth McLaren (the creative one and the right brain of Tracks) who donate 5% of the revenue they earn to local charities.
With no user limits or any other restrictions, Buildtracks is no high-priced tools, you either need to be integrated with Highrise (then the pricing is $24 per month or $149 a year) or you can use Tracks by paying $16 per month or $99 a year.
To know more about Buildtracks read on our exclusive interview with Gregor McKelvie from Buildtracks.
Happy reading!
I was originally a mechanical engineer and worked as a designer for six years. I then did a bit of traveling and went into business development, which is where I got my sales and CRM experience. Frustrated with working for someone else I started working fit myself about four years.
Ruth has recently joined me to help with much of the public facing work like Twitter, Google+, email marketing and other promotion. She has worked in government, corporate world and for a charity and has used a range of CRMs.
2. Tell us the concept behind Buildtracks.
The main goal of the software is to help small businesses track monthly sales. There are a lot of things to do in a small business; making sure you have enough sales coming in is probably the most important.
3. What prompted you to come up with Buildtracks? Was it a personal experience you faced that prompted you to start it?
I was using Highrise in a small business and we needed a sales pipeline tool to work with it. After some research I found others that had the same problem, so I built a basic tool that integrated with the Highrise API and grew the application from there. It is now a stand alone sales tracking tool and you don't need Highrise to use it.
4. Tell us how Buildtracks helps small and SMB merchants streamline their business?
There is a lot of software available now. I'd argue that most small businesses are using software that they don't need or don't use. This is particularly true in CRM software. Over the years CRM has just gotten too complicated. By using Tracks, SMBs waste less time on using software and spend more time running their business.
5. How can Buildtracks help a merchant focus on the most critical areas of their business?
Tracks keeps small businesses focused on the numbers - in particular, the sales numbers. And it gives you a nudge when sales are going cold.
6. How long did it take you to build Buildtracks from start to finish? Were you and Ruth Mclaren and "Betty" the only team members to create Buildtracks?
It's still in development and always will be. It started as a side project a couple of years ago and I built it for a small business with another developer when I was working as a freelancer. About a year later I decided to try and make it something I worked on full time. It's mainly me and Ruth that work on it now, but we've got a handful of others we lean on when we need specialist skills or input. Betty is there to take us away from the stresses and strains of running a small startup - especially as Ruth and I are a couple.
7. What sort of reports can merchants generate from your software? What valuable data can be gleaned from these reports?
They can export all sales won, lost and pending into excel. And you can do anything with excel.
Most people use Tracks though for getting a snapshot of sales that are coming in in the next month or few months.
8. Being entrepreneurs yourself what other entrepreneurs do you look up to? If you could get one new entrepreneur onboard on your team who would it be?
I really like Jason Fried of 37signals. I like his approach to design.
I'm also a massive fan of Richard Branson. I like his "say yes because it will be more fun" attitude. He'd definitely make it on to the team!
And I respect Chris and Natalie Nagele who run Wildbit as a couple and with a remote team - something Ruth and I both aspire to.
9. What future plans do you have for Buildtracks? Do you plan to enhance its features in the future?
We're at a stage of improving what we have before building anything else too major. I'm a big believer in keeping things simple and light, providing the end product is useful.
Three areas for improving in 2014 are the overall performance and speed of the interface, reducing the manual time involved in entering data and enhancing the mobile experience.
10. Having come thus far in your journey in creating Buildtracks, what advice would you have for as aspiring entrepreneurs?
Make a promise to yourself to commit to the idea you had for at least a couple of years. Adapting and pivoting are natural, but I think there is too much press given to "failing fast". Anything of real value takes a long time to build. The best thing you can do is understand that from the start.
Thanks Gregor for taking out the time and doing this interview with us. We'd like to wish you and your team at Buildtracks the very best for the future.
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